Here is a breakdown of the main triathlon distances:
| Swim | Bike | Run | Total Distance (KM) | |
| Super-Sprint | 400m | 10KM | 2.5KM | 12.9KM |
| Sprint | 750m | 20KM | 5KM | 25.75KM |
| Olympic | 1.5KM | 40KM | 10KM | 51.5KM |
| T100 | 2KM | 80KM | 18KM | 100KM |
| Half Ironman | 1.9KM | 90KM | 21.1KM | 113KM |
| Ironman | 3.8KM | 180KM | 42.2KM | 226KM |
While the Ironman is twice the Half Ironman distance, the other formats have outliers within the disciplines, with each discipline making up a different percentage of the total race distance.
All distances can vary slightly. This is most common of the super-sprint distance at a local level where the distances are typically around a 300m swim, 16km bike and 3km run.
Here are the percentage splits of each discipline for each distance:
| Swim | Bike | Run | |
| Super-Sprint | 3.10% | 77.52% | 19.38% |
| Sprint | 2.91% | 77.67% | 19.42% |
| Olympic | 2.91% | 77.67% | 19.42% |
| T100 | 2.00% | 80.00% | 18.00% |
| Half Ironman | 1.68% | 79.65% | 18.67% |
| Ironman | 1.68% | 79.65% | 18.67% |
These percentages suggest that in longer events, from T100 upwards, swimming has less impact on overall results—especially as the bike leg is not draft legal
In shorter events, the swim makes up a larger percentage of the race and is more critical at higher levels, as it enables athletes to join a more elite bike group due to draft-legal racing.
The T100 provides a different experience from the others, slightly favoring stronger cyclists and weaker runners with a longer bike and shorter run.
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